#lipards

Mr Franco Stenta of Barberino Mugello owned a number of tame big captive-born big cats: 2 male lions, 2 male tigers, 1 tiger cub and a leopardess. These had been acquired from Rome Zoo and were tame to the point of being domesticated. One lion (Panthera leo) named Puff, the leopardess (Panthera pardus) named Miccia, and the tiger cub were housed in cages in the courtyard of the Stenta family's paper factory in Florence. The owner did not expect or intend them to breed. The (Panthera leo x Panthera pardus) hybrid “lipard” (often called a "leopon" or "reverse leopon") came as a complete surprise to the owner and at first he mistook it for a domestic cat, which he thought had slipped into the cage.

The father of the hybrid was a 2 year old, 250 kilogram lion; he was 1.08 meters tall at the shoulders and 1.8 meters long (excluding his tail). The mother was a 3.5 year old leopardess, weighing only 38 kilograms. The female cub was born overnight on the 26th-27th of August, 1982. Its estimated birth-weight was similar to that of a leopard cub, and the estimated gestation period was 92-93 days.